


Don't Ask Any Questions and Run Like Hell

by generaldamerons



Category: Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, this is nine hundred percent an AU because i SAID SO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23457199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/generaldamerons/pseuds/generaldamerons
Summary: Mills thinks it's all over. Turns out the island still has surprises for them.
Relationships: Earl Cole & Glenn Mills, Earl Cole/Glenn Mills
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Don't Ask Any Questions and Run Like Hell

Mills stands in the warm sand, the tide rising to kiss the soles of his boots as he gazes out over Skull Island. He can’t help but think _what now?_ His trained military brain knows there's activity on the beach behind him, rescue choppers getting ready to take off, to take them away from this place, but his emotional human brain can't give a shit about any of it. 

Nothing will or could possibly ever be normal in his life again. Suddenly he feels alone, cold. For the past four years he’s always had someone by his side. Now that familiarity is gone. Cole is gone. 

Mills remembers the slow, lazy grin Cole had leveled at them, at him, before… “Go live your life. Get outta here.”

Cole had done that for all of them, sacrificed himself on the eve of returning home, sacrificed everything for them, but he’d really been talking to Mills. It had been obvious, crystal clear, even as Conrad grabbed Mills, hauled on his webbing, pulled him back and away from the imminent blast zone. 

Thinking about that, the worst moment of Mills’ life, makes him tear up, lumps forming in his throat, breaths coming in sharp and short. 

Tears fall hot and heavy down his face as he remembers Cole’s grin as he’d turned his back on them, on Mills. 

What is Mills going to do now? He’s alone.

Alone. 

Mills’ knees buckle and he lands heavily in the incoming tide. Burying his face in his hands, Mills lets his shoulders slump. He’s finally and utterly done. There’s nothing left. The tide recedes back toward the ocean and he can feel it tugging, trying to drag him away. _Let it_ , he thinks. _You can have me._

Vaguely, Mills becomes aware of someone moving in the surf behind him. He’s sure it’s one of the guys coming to drag him to the helicopters and back to the _Athena_ , back to the world. But he’s not going. He can’t. He’d rather die here. This fucking island can have him. 

“Mills! Move your ass!”

His response is automatic. Four years of back and forth with someone will do that to a man. “Man, Cole, shut up.” Another sob escapes Mills’ throat before he realizes what he’s just said.

He’s already hallucinating, conjuring things that aren’t real to sate his broken mind. 

“Mills, you idiot, let’s go!”

He takes a deep breath, turns, and comes face-to-face with his sorrow.

Cole stands on the shore behind him, a mere 20 feet away. 

“What the hell?” Mills breathes, struggling to his feet in the wet sand. He finally gets his feet under him and stumbles up to within a couple of feet of Cole. 

“Let’s go, they’re gonna leave us.” Cole nods his head toward the waiting helicopters. 

“You’re not real.”

“I am.”

“No. I saw you… I heard you.”

“You heard me tell you to go live your life?”

Mills is manic, breaths coming too fast. “And then that thing got you with its tail. You’re dead! I saw it.” Suddenly the mania retreats and he deflates, staring at the ground, sure that when he looks up again Cole will be gone. “You’re dead.”

A familiar hand comes to rest on Mills’ wrist. “I’m standin’ here in front of you, aren’t I?” Mills looks up and into Cole’s smiling eyes. “You lose it out there?”

Mills glares at the apparition in front of him. “You ain’t funny, Cole.”

Cole is still smiling at him, a warm soft smile which reaches his eyes, makes the corners turn up and his crow’s feet crinkle. “You’ve told me that before.” Cole reaches further up and the back of his knuckles land softly and warmly against Mills’ cheek. 

A sob, deep and guttural, wrenches itself from Mills’ throat and he immediately closes the distance between himself and the older man. He all but falls into Cole’s arms, the other man taking hold and pulling him in as close as possible. 

Mills buries his hands in Cole’s BDUs as Cole reaches around and cradles Mills’ head to his shoulder. “I’m here, I’m here,” Cole whispers into his ear, still not letting go even as he hears the footsteps of the others behind him. “I couldn’t leave you, now, could I? You can’t take care of yourself.”

Mills fists his hands deeper into Cole’s uniform. “But how? You did leave. You left me, told me to go live my life, but how was I supposed to go home… live a life without you in it?”

Cole pulls back, gazes straight into Mills’ swollen eyes. “Listen, that damn bastard fucked up my plan, but I’d have been more than okay dying if that meant you got to go home to your mama. I did it and I’d do it again if I had to. Your life is too important to me.”

Mills extracts himself from their embrace. “You’re a goddamn bastard, Cole.”

Cole grins. “I know. That’s why you love me.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Mills pulls the other man to him, their mouths crashing together painfully. Within seconds Cole is brushing his thumb along Mills’ cheekbone.

Cole pulls away first. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Suddenly cheering erupts from behind them and Mills looks over Cole’s shoulder to see their audience. Conrad, Weaver, Marlow, Brooks, San, and Slivko are watching them, huge smiles plastered to their faces. Miraculously, Mills realizes Chapman has joined them. Jack moves forward, arms outstretched. “Good to see you, bud. Really damn good to see you.” 

Mills pulls the major in close, hugs him tightly, then pulls back again to look at the rest. “Anybody feel like explaining to me just what in the name of fuck is going on?”

“We’re still not sure,” Cole responds softly from behind him. “We were hoping the science kids could figure it out, but we’ve got some ideas. Jack and I woke up in a weird temple thing about two klicks down the beach an hour ago, no idea how we got there or why. We hit the beach a few minutes before you did.”

“Let’s hit it, crew!” Conrad yells, pulling everyone out of the moment and nodding toward the waiting helicopters. “It’s time to go home.” 

Helicopter rotors thump, coming up to speed, and even though no one’s quite sure what’s going on or how it’s all real, Mills knows they’ve seen enough on this godforsaken island to know just about anything’s possible. He’s decided he’s not going to ask questions. He’s got one of his best friends and a surly, sarcastic helicopter pilot who is just about his entire fucking life back and he’s gonna take whatever luck he was graced with and run like hell with it.


End file.
